Uconn

STORRS – Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis became the third-fastest player in UConn history to score 1,000 points in her career Saturday, reaching the milestone in just her 64th game. She also became just the fourth player to accomplish it during her sophomore year.

She went into the game needing just six points and scored those in just three minutes, 57 seconds as she made two 3-pointers.

The only Huskies to ever reach 1,000 points faster were Maya Moore and Sevetlana Abrosimova. Moore reached it in just 55 games while Abrosimova reached it in 63 games. The only other player to reach that the milestone as a sophomore was Bria Hartley, who did it in 76 games.

She finished the game with 18 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the field including 4-for-5 from 3-point range.

Senior Kelly Faris also reached the 1,000-point milestone in the game for the Huskies, doing so on a layup off one of her seven steals with 6:20 to play on the game. She needed 18 points to reach and scored just that.

"It probably wouldn't even be that special for me if it wasn't with Kelly," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "That is why I tried to set her about 50 screens at the end of the game so she could get it."

The game marked only the second time in UConn history that two players have scored their 1,000th career point in the same game.

The only other time was on Nov. 17, 1996 when Carla Berube and Nykesha Sales each reached 1,000 against Western Kentucky in a game played at Stanford's Maples Pavilion.

Rare achievement: Faris became the 38th player in UConn history to reach the 1,000-point mark, but she is closing in on something much more significant.

She has a very realistic chance to accomplish something someone only one other UConn player has done.

Maya Moore is the only player to have scored 1,000 points with 750 rebounds, 500 assists and 250 steals. Right now, Faris has 1,000 points, 736 rebounds, 500 assists and 271 steals.

Back in stride?: The most encouraging thing to come out of Saturday's game was the 16-point, eight-rebound performance by freshman Breanna Stewart, who had been mired in a 14-game slump relative to her abilities.

"It did feel a lot better to go out there and just play and be aggressive and have fun," Stewart said. "At the same time, I still need to keep working hard. There are still going to be some struggles that I am going to need to overcome, but I think that this game is really going to help me for the future. I was aggressive, and when shots fall obviously your confidence is going increase. At a time like this what you want to see is the ball go through the rim."

The game marked only the second time in the last nine games that Stewart shot better than 50 percent from the field and only the third time of that span that she scored more than 10 points. She finished the game shooting 7-for-12 from the field.

Over her previous 14 games, Stewart had averaged only 9.6 points while shooting 39.5 percent from the floor. Going into Saturday's game, Stewart had missed 13 straight 3-pointers dating back to the second half of the Villanova game on Jan. 29. She made her only 3-pointer she attempted against Seton with 14:02 to play in the game.

"As bad as Stewie has been playing, getting here I checked her shoes and the right one was on the right foot, and the left one was on the left foot, so she was way ahead of the game as far as I was concerned," Auriemma joked. "Anything she did after that was gravy."

On a serious note, the coach was very pleased with the way Stewart played.

"I especially like that her first couple of plays were really aggressive plays that weren't stand around waiting for something to happen," Auriemma said. "They were the kind of plays where she was making things happen. You get out of whatever is bothering you by being more aggressive, not by being more tentative. That doesn't mean you become more aggressive just by shooting jump shots. She ended up impacting the game with follow-ups, offensive rebounds, playing good defense and just a lot of good things she was doing.

Both Stewart and Auriemma said that in order to make Saturday's performance meaningful, Stewart has to follow up with another good game.

"I hope it is something she can build on," Auriemma said, "because obviously if you are able to get a game like this on a regular basis from Stewie then that changes the complexion of our team completely."

Close call: Just 1:37 into the game, Caroline Doty went down on the court, and it looked ominous as she grimaced in pain. She left the game and went to bench where athletic trainer Rosemary Ragle looked at her left leg. It's that leg in which Doty suffered the most recent of her three ACL injuries and upon which she wears a bulky stabilizing brace.

The injury proved to have nothing to do with her knee, however, as she turned an ankle after stepping on the foot of a Seton Hall player. Doty joked afterward that it wouldn't be an official game if Ragle didn't have to examine her at some point.

"I was thinking wrap it up and I will get back in," Doty said. "Rosie took care of me like she always does."

Auriemma said he didn't play Doty as much as he normally would have, but she did finish with five points, five rebounds and three assists in 17 minutes.

Meaningful farewell: Senior Heather Buck finished Saturday games with four points, one rebound, one assist and a very good feeling about how meaningful it has been to be part of the program.

"I've really grown close and made real meaningful relationships with the people on the team," Buck said. "These will be some of my very best friends forever. I think everyone is a little bit surprised how hard it is to come here and to play. You know coming in that it is going to be difficult. But until you are really here experiencing it, you don't realize the magnitude of that challenge."

Buck said that while the Huskies still have as many as six more home games and possibly two more in-state games in Bridgeport during the NCAA Tournament, Senior Day was very emotional. She cried throughout the ceremony.

"It was really tough," Buck said. "When it really hit me was when they started announcing Caroline (Doty). When they announced me, I was happy and excited. It's been a great journey, so I was happy for myself. And then as soon as they started announcing my teammates I am thinking, 'I am never going to be with them again, not in this way.' We are all leaving. That is when it really hit me."

Greatest fans: Despite the fact that everyone knew going into the game that Seton Hall (9-18) didn't have much of a chance to stay even remotely close to the Huskies in the game, there was a crowd of 9,107 at Gampel on Saturday.

"I honestly believe we have the best fans in the country," Buck said. "It feels great to have that kind of support behind you all the time. I have had a challenging career, and even so everyone is there to support me and us and our whole team. It is really a special group of fans."

400th conference win: Auriemma reached a milestone of his own Saturday as he won his 400th Big East Conference game.

In improving to 400-60 during his career in Big East games, Auriemma became only the second women's Division I coach in the country to win 400 games in the same conference. The only other coach to do so is Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who accomplished the feat earlier this month in the Pac-12 Conference.

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